eBooks are digital products with almost no overhead, making them great if you want to make money. So if you’re going to skip over the physical product and trade it for a download link, you’ll need a Shopify store. Below are five steps you can take to sell eBooks on Shopify.
Fast rundown
All you need to do is – create an eBook, start a Shopify trial, create your products, install the DDA – Digital Assets Shopify app, upload your eBooks & then attach them to your Shopify products. Once you have followed these steps, you’re set and ready to deliver eBooks to your customers.
Step 1: Brainstorm ideas to create an eBook
First, you’ll need ideas for what you will write about. Start with the two primary forms of books:
- Fiction (fake)
- Non-fiction (not fake)
Fiction books require creativity and a whole lot of effort. Start by following writing prompts and honing your craft in areas you are interested in. Seek feedback for people who aren’t afraid to hurt your feelings and fellow authors.
To write non-fiction books, you’ll want to do some research and solve problems. You can choose to be the ultimate resource for a topic you have expertise in or learn new crafts to share with the world. Try and stick to narrow issues; go to Reddit to find small communities whose problems you solve, and focus on communities with at least 100 thousand members.
Step 2: Create your Shopify Store
Once you’ve got some good eBooks, you’ll want to create a Shopify store. With the recent Shopify 2.0 update, you are set to create a store super easily.
Still, you’ll want to run through the editor and familiarize yourself with how to make it unique. You’ll wish to use custom graphics to help you stand out compared to the crowd.
For logos and designs, you can hire freelancers on Fiverr or Upwork. Otherwise, you might teach yourself how to use Canva. Try and keep it simple to start with plans to expand down the line.
Step 3: Install the Downloadable Digital Assets Shopify app to your store
Once your store is where you want it, you’ll need a digital downloads manager to upload your eBooks.
Shopify doesn’t have an in-built system for digital downloads, so they have a Shopify-approved app that you need to install from their app store. Shopify and their expert’s favourite choice is the Downloadable Digital Assets app.
Why use this app?
Professional speed & automation
DDA use top-grade servers from Amazon and Digital Ocean. These deliver the fastest download speeds, so your customer receive their files as fast as possible
You can also automate the whole process, so you don’t need to fulfil the products yourself. Once an order comes in, the customer will receive their eBooks instantly without needing a human to help them.
Storage & pricing
It’s the ideal way to handle your digital files because its free version offers 2GB of storage. Because most eBooks are tiny, you won’t need to worry about paying for a while. Even when you do, the monthly subscription starts at $5, and it unlocks some awesome features. Just as much as buying a coffee to make your store better.
Brand customization
Downloadable Digital Assets also includes email templates with great customization options. This feature enables you to use your own branding when marketing your digital eBooks. You can completely brand every process of digital delivery so that it makes it look like your store created the system.
It’s even possible to send download emails from your own company email address.
Copyright protection & PDF stamping
This app also gives you protection features to prevent customers from sharing downloads with others. Basically, giving you copyright protection to stop naughty customers from sharing the files without permission. No other app on the app store has features to do this, not even the Shopify version.
If your eBook is delivered in PDF format, you can even use PDF Stamping to protect them from being shared. This will stamp the customer’s personal email and name onto the pages, and you can lock it so the customer cannot remove them. This means the customer would not want to share with anyone because legal action can be taken against them.
Set IP address limits
This app has made it easy to stop multiple IP addresses from downloading the files. This helps prevent customers sharing the downloads with others.
100% Deliverability rate
Make sure your files are delivered 100% of the time by delivering them in these three methods:
- Via email
- On the Thank You page
- Inside the customer accounts
Shopify Staff Picked
You’ve probably heard this term before in other places, such as Vimeo Staff Pick or similar. It’s where the staff have a favourite and choose specific apps they believe are great and showcase them on their front page. This app has been staff picked by Shopify themselves!
Step 4: Create products in Shopify, then upload your eBooks
1. Create your Shopify products in Shopify
You’ll need to create a new product for each of your eBooks to do this. Find out how to add products to Shopify here. But in short, you can go to:
- Your Shopify dashboard
- Go to the “Products” page
- Click the “Add product” button
Once you have created the products in Shopify, they will automatically be synced to the DDA – Digital Assets app product page. Now you can upload and then attach your eBooks to these products.
2. Upload your eBook files to the app
- Go to Downloadable Digital Assets
- Click on “Assets”
- Click on the “Upload new assets” button
- Upload your eBook files
3. Attach the eBooks to your Shopify products
- Click on the uploaded eBook file (blue link)
- Attach it to your Shopify product
Once the eBooks are attached to the Shopify product, you are armed to deliver your eBooks to your customers. If a customer purchases that Shopify product, the eBook files will be sent to your customer. Try placing a test order and see how the process works.
Full video tutorial on how to sell eBooks using Shopify
You can watch the video tutorial below to learn how to install the app, upload your products and be ready to sell. It’s super easy.
Step 5: Grow Your Audience
Once your downloadable products are listed and finished, your digital content is ready for sale. You need to make people aware of this offering and grow your audience.
To start, you can use PPC campaigns on sites like Google or Facebook to attract people looking for your book. You might target people who look for “fantasy novels in fiction.” For non-fiction, focus on providing your book as a solution to their questions on Google and Facebook.
Make sure to check these guides:
You can use this to point people to direct sales of your book. You can include thank you cards within the shipment, asking them to spread the word and follow you on Facebook. People find small creators pretty charming.
You can gain new followers who like your style from your social media. Through this, you’ll be able to make a post to boost your sales (instead of paying for advertising).
Using these steps, you’ll be able to get some significant potential for your Shopify eBook business.
